


Boxes

by DreamingKate



Category: Glee
Genre: Racial slurs
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-03
Updated: 2014-07-03
Packaged: 2018-02-07 05:43:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 980
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1887129
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DreamingKate/pseuds/DreamingKate
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Being biracial was not something Blaine wanted to be identified by.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Boxes

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt by evil-dreamer: Prompt: There is a Filipino exchange student at McKinley who doesn’t speak much English. Blaine speaks Tagalog ( he’s half-Filipino) and helps the student. The jocks (ND?) didn’t know this and are racist towards Blaine. After the exchange student leaves it gets bad. Until someone Sam or Jake (they could totally bond over being biracial) find out and put an end to it.

His name was Gabriel, and he had only been at McKinnley for three hours before the jocks pounced. 

"I’m sorry what?" broke through the loud laughter as Blaine, Sam and Marley turned the corner. "Bing bong ching chong?"

"I…English not perfect," the smaller boy shrugged, trying to keep a smile on his face despite his red blush. "Where first office?"

The jocks dissolved into laughter again, prompting him to say it again as the three approached. Blaine opened his mouth to tell them off, but then he caught sight of the small Philippines flag pin on the boy’s backpack. 

"Mawalang galang na, sigurado ka mula sa Pilipinas?" Excuse me, are you from the Philippines? Blaine asked with a warm smile and the boy nodded, looking relieved. 

"Ako. Nagsasalita ka Tagalog?" I am. You speak Tagalog? Gabriel inched away from the staring jocks. 

"Ang akin nanny ay mula sa Maynila. Ano any kailangan kong hanapin?" My mother is from Manila. What did you need to find? He heard one of the jocks let out a snort of laughter and ignored them. 

"Kailangan ko ang akin iskedyul. Kung saan ay ang opisina?" I need my schedule. Where is the office?

"Sa dull at i-kaliwa," At the end and turn left. Blaine pointed down the hall, and Gabriel thanked him quickly before all but fleeing from the group of staring jocks. 

Suddenly, Blaine felt incredibly self conscious. He gave them a quick shrug and gave his friends a small smile, walking with them towards the cafeteria. Whatever, lots of people spoke two languages. 

"See ya dog eater!"

Shit.

Being half Filipino was not something Blaine had ever been ashamed of. He loved his mom and loved being raised with two cultures. However, he did insist on not having any Filipino food packed in his lunch when he was little. It was a private thing, something that was just between him and his family. 

Now, it was something the whole school knew.

The rude comments and racial slurs were bad, even worse was that his friends didn’t really know how to react. They stood up for him, but it wasn’t enough. Blaine had thought that being class president and them winning nationals last year had given him a break from the bullying. Turns out, they were just looking for something else to attack him over.

"So, did you just get off the boat too Anderson?" He kept his head down at one of the hockey players hovered nearby. "Also, what catalogue did your dad pick your mom out of?"

"Maybe you should go before I punch your face in," an icy voice spoke up, and Blaine glanced up to see Jake. The jock scowled and slunk off as Jake turned to him. "Are you okay?"

"Fine. I don’t need an underclassman protecting me," Blaine snapped, anger surging through him as he slammed his locker shut and spun around. 

"Really? I’m kind of hurt that we haven’t bonded over biracialness yet," he gave the older boy a slightly crooked smile. 

"Being biracial doesn’t define me. Yes, I look like a mix of two races. Yes, I speak another language and I eat different food but it isn’t who I am," Blaine huffed slightly. "I mean…it’s coming from two cultures too and having jokes made about it."

"And you don’t think I’ve heard the Kwanza joke a million times? I’ve had people ask if I consider myself to be black or white, like I can’t be both. I shouldn’t have to choose a race to identify with but I do, because it makes it easier for people to put me in a box," Jake shrugged, closing a hand around his backpack strap. "You’ve never hidden any part of yourself, why have we never heard of the Filipino side of you?"

"Jake, I literally got the shit beaten out of me for being gay. Why would I want to be the gay, half Asian?" Blaine curled his shoulders in. "I like my culture and I love my mom…but I don’t need to give others a reason to hurt me."

He had to look away from the pity in Jake’s eyes. 

"I think the Filipino thing is cool. It had to be tough on your mom to move to a new country, and she’s raised two kids on top of it. You’re both white and Asian. You don’t have to choose one," Jake shrugged. "I’m kind of just getting used to the idea myself. So, biracial bros?"

With a slight roll of the eyes, Blaine lifted his hand for the fist bump.

"Thanks Jake," he smiled. 

"Plus I read about some of the Filipino food, an dude you need to bring it to practice or something," Blaine laughed as he hoisted his bag up on his shoulder. 

That night, Blaine lay in bed and just thought. Maybe he did need to embrace his Asian culture more. Kurt had always thought it was incredibly interesting and insisted on Blaine sharing it and teaching him. Reluctantly, he had explained some things. Being biracial had always meant people would treat him two ways. Either, they would get awkward and never mention it for fear of insulting him, or they would tell him how much they loooooved biracial people. They were walking on eggshells or they were talking about how beautiful biracial babies were.

Kurt was different. Kurt wanted to understand and Kurt wanted to embrace the culture. The realization that Kurt was trying to understand the culture to get closer to him made something warm in his chest. They were a couple, Kurt wanted to understand everything about Blaine with no judgement. 

He turned over and sent a text. 

To Kurt: Mahal kita.

From Kurt: Mahal kita masayadong

From Kurt: I may have memorized that a long time ago

From Kurt: But I do love you too <3


End file.
